Saturday, 1 August 2009

The Lucky 13, 1106 Solano Avenue, Albany, CA (at San Pablo)

At the junction of San Pablo and Solano in Albany there was a somewhat mysterious place called The Lucky 13. “Lucky 13” was the tag for a popular Oakland soul station (KDIA 1310 AM), and the Lucky 13 was an after hours teen club, only open between 2-6 am. East Bay soul groups (like Tower of Power) would play there, promoted by the radio station, but the history of this venue has been very hard to unravel - so any memories would really help out.
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13 comments:

  1. Corry3426 August 2009 at 12:39

    Among the many confusing aspects of The Lucky 13 is that there was another "Lucky 13" in Oakland, several miles and two cities away. The Oakland "Lucky 13" was at 3432 MacArthur. It was a bar that sometimes had music, unlike the Albany club which was a restaurant that may not have even had a liquor license.

    Corry

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  2. Corry3426 August 2009 at 12:41

    The one ad I have seen for the Albany Lucky 13 had the address of 901 San Pablo Avenue. It appears the building is L-shaped, and both addresses (910 San Pablo and 1106 Solano) are "correct."

    Corry

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  3. Corry3426 August 2009 at 12:43

    Around 1966, The Lucky 13 featured "teen" rock bands, playing British Invasion style music. Since they did not serve liqour, teenagers could patronize the place. Apparently the police had complaints about the noise, however. One has to wonder, however, why complaints about teenage rock band noise in the early evening did not lead to complaints about noisy soul music from 2-6am on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

    Corry

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  4. Unknown10 August 2009 at 15:36

    Would it be possible to mail me the familytrees
    in a printable version?
    Thanx
    Rgds
    Dag Warner
    dagwarner@gmail.com

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  5. topdogrecordz18 May 2011 at 05:15

    I think they got it wrong THE BAYLANDER'S were the first I know because I was the lead singer my name is WILLIAM BOSTIC and Mr PETE PETERSON was the owner and we had a great time being young at the lucky 13 Iam still in the music game owning my own record company and would love to hear from the people who made being young fun topdogrecordz@att.net see u soon BILL BOSTIC

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  6. Anonymous12 February 2014 at 20:47

    my name is Linda I have such great memories about the lucky 13 .I work before ours serving cocktails and dinner enjoying great bands and I also work after hours supervising the waitresses near beer with the big commodity no alcohol served I would love to chat more about these wonderful memories I love that club and working for Dan and Pete was also a great experience they expected a lot but they were very fair.

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  7. bababob21 May 2014 at 00:51

    Glad to see the Lucky 13 commemorated. My band, The Loading Zone, played there many a night in the .60s. The owner, Pete Peterson, had an uncanny way of predicting when the band was desperate enough to take the $125 he paid for playing an entire night - from 8:00 PM or so until 6:00 AM in the morning. (Yup the original entry is wrong - the club was open evenings as well -- it just stopped serving booze after hours.) This was a very rough crowd. I don't remember it as teens at all. Although the bar closed at 1 or 2, they still served mixers and the customers had no shortage of their own intoxicants.

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    1. Anonymous14 June 2018 at 03:35

      Wow Flashback I remember you guy's went to Berkely High Class '67
      I remember Linda well and saw you guy's play etc..My friends had a band called The Savonics all went to Berkeley High I think it was 1966 they won a Calif. state fair band competition..Man the Loading Zone use to rock..great memories...Late nights going through the Lucky 13..I could not remember the name of the club but a friend did..Earlis Marks
      BHS '67

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  8. Anonymous28 July 2014 at 16:30

    my name is william bostic and there was a bar tender murell that i would love to see my name is william bostic i can be reach at topdogrecordz@att.net

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    1. Larry Taylor22 August 2022 at 00:30

      Hey William I remember you. I was friends with The Whispering Shadows, Wayne Nordby and the band along with Jim and John MESTAS. Went to Vegas in 69 and had 50 years of creating entertainment. Firstdjlarry@att.net Also on LinkedIn and Face Book. Also the Loading Zone and Pete and Dan memories. I went to the city council meeting and spoke on behalf of the club to ask them not to revoke the license.

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  9. Anonymous16 May 2015 at 20:30

    My father-in-law was Pete "Red" Peterson, although I did not have the pleasure of meeting him. My husband says he remembers that Marvyn Gaye played at the club. He also mentioned a that the club had a go-go dancer and there was a bouncer named Juan who was a former Mr. California. He said that Sly Stone may have appeared at the club too.

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  10. Unknown31 July 2021 at 17:46

    Hey good day to everybody I'm a Bay area lady and I used to audition bands and loved the Lucky 13. I worked before hours with cocktails and dinner and then live music. I am amazed at how very awesome each and every band was very rarely was there ever one that didn't get the people popping. I also worked after hours from 2:00 to 6:00 a.m. once again some great bands in fact tower of power came in as the motown's. The near beer stink yucky ducky. The dance floor could have been a little bit bigger but it was really perfect and after hours it was always packed to the max. Yes we had go go girls sly we had some great bands the spiders the international five and a half oh my goodness we had some great musical geniuses come through there. Emilio Costello being one of them. Leader of Tower of power. I've been reminiscing a lot about those days in the late sixties early seventies with the Lucky 13. My life has had many ups and downs many mountains many valleys lots of very precious moments to fall back on and is aching and is tired as my feet would be from working and dancing at the Lucky 13 what precious memories they are to reflect on. We had some good folks that came to the club every week great dancers I don't know if anybody ever remembers Emily from New York but that girl could bop. As for me I was next on the list after her I got a lot of attention with my dancing and we had some sharp dancers especially the fellas. They usually came in after hours held the walls up and checked out those who were good dancers and made sure that they asked them to dance and after hours. Oh my goodness I got some good and bad memories from there. There was not a bad or evil atmosphere at the Lucky 13 yes we had many folks doing their own thing but still there were no big laws ever broken we all came to party dance and have a cocktail or two and the dinners the steaks were absolutely awesome and of course the service too. The bouncer one was a good man he was a handsome fella too trust me everybody did very good when they came there very seldom did we ever have a fight. Everyone was afraid of one who wanted to come up next to him that was like coming up next to the hulk and the hulk hadn't been born yet. I know being quite honest with you I have to say that my first acid experience was given from a friend at the Lucky 13 one Thursday night not working. This knucklehead strolls into the club there's about eight of us sitting there at two tables drinking listening to the band and dancing we're out for a good time and a break from the monotony of life LOL especially our babies LOL young mothers know what I mean. And he just zippity Doo dogs in there and within a matter of 2 minutes he's got all of us dropping this acid oh my goodness that was a night to remember holy moly I often wonder if the owner's knew what we were up to that night cuz we was all way out there and we didn't stick around the club that long either but we were in the vicinity let's just put it that way for hours oh my goodness LOL I'm 70 years old now and I wouldn't give up those moments for anything and when I was active at the Lucky 13 which was basically about 4 years we had other nightclubs one right across the street in fact I stood in front of a friend of mine whose husband tried to shoot her but that was at a club across the street not Lucky 13 and another one down the street that was all kinds of them on San Pablo avenue anyways for me that was a good old time and a funky time for a funky lady in the funky part of California Peace my friends love me some Lucky 13 and by the way the owners were the best. By the way I was in charge all the waitresses in the cocktail waitresses before hours and after hours and audition the music for a very long time loved it sometimes it was so hard saying no to some of the bands anyway you got to do what pulls the people know what I mean and of course the bosses won't drinkers even if it is near beer.

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  11. Anonymous22 August 2022 at 00:13

    Well it's been a year I hope your still there. This is Larry Taylor friends with Jim and John MESTAS and Wayne Nordby from The Whispering Shadows. I have the News article when I spoke at the City Council meeting trying to close the club. Firstdjlarry@att.net

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